Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

It’s Monday again: October 8, 2018, and—God help us) National Fluffernutter Day—which refers to a peanut butter sandwich also containing marshmallow-fluff spread. According to Wikipedia, it’s also these days:

“Earliest day on which Columbus Day can fall, while October 14 is the latest; observed on the second Monday of October (United States); and its related observance.

On this day in 1871, two fires broke out: the famous Great Chicago Fire and the much less famous but deadlier Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin, which killed around 1500 people and remains the deadliest fire in American history.

On this day in 1918, Corporal Alvin C. York earned his Medal of Honor by killing 28 German soldiers and capturing 132—singlehandedly. Here’s part of his story from Wikipedia (he also was, initially, a conscientious objector):

In October 1918, as a newly-promoted corporal, York was one of a group of seventeen soldiers assigned to infiltrate German lines and silence a machine gun position. After the American patrol had captured a large group of enemy soldiers, German small arms fire killed six Americans and wounded three. York was the highest ranking of those still able to fight, so he took charge. While his men guarded the prisoners, York attacked the machine gun position, dispatching several German soldiers with his rifle before running out of ammunition. Six German soldiers charged him with bayonets, and York drew his pistol and killed them all. The German officer responsible for the machine gun position had emptied his pistol while firing at York but failed to hit him. This officer then offered to surrender and York accepted. York and his men marched back to their unit’s command post with more than 130 prisoners. York was immediately promoted to sergeant and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross; an investigation resulted in the upgrading of the award to the Medal of Honor. York’s feat made him a national hero and international celebrity among allied nations.

On this day in 1939, after invading Poland on September 1, Germany formally annexed western Poland. And on October 8, 1956, Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the only perfect game ever to occur in a World Series (a “perfect game” is one in which no batter reaches first base). Larsen retired 27 Brooklyn Dodgers in a row. Here’s a short video of the last pitch. You may recognize the leaping catcher as Yogi Berra.

On October 8, 1967, Che Guevara and his men were captured in Bolivia. Guevara was executed with nine bullets the next day. On this day in 1978, Australian Ken Warby set the water speed record, which still stands, going a stupendous 371.60 miles per hour (511 kilometers/hr). Here’s a short clip of that record, which occurs at about 1:44. Sadly, he killed a duck on one attempt!

On this day in 1982, Poland banned Solidarity and all trade unions. But it was too late: Communism was on its way out in Eastern Europe. On October 8, 1982, the play Cats opened on Broadway, running almost 18 years before it closed on September 10, 2000. Finally, on this day in 2001, President G. W. Bush established the Office of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is a bit enigmatic, but Malgorzata explains:

Our new gardener was pruning one of the apple trees. You can see branches on the ground. Hili wanted to know why he was doing it. Andrzej explained that if you don’t care for the fruit trees they go wild and the fruits will not be good. This led to Hili’s conclusion about the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

A tweet from reader Jiten, showing people loving wild (and domestic) animals. The first clip shows two chimps reuniting with a man who saved them (I don’t know the story). The kangaroo hug is especially touching. And even fish come for cuddles!

Like, you could be falsely accused of rape in Central Park, and then a racist, brain-damaged businessman could take out full-page ads in the NY Times demanding your execution. Scary times, indeed. https://t.co/8BP8H9L3TU

Don Larsen’s perfect game was called by Vin Scully. He announced Dodger games (in Brooklyn and L.A) for 67 years (from 1950 through 2016). For one person to call games for one professional team for so long is amazing in itself.

Comedy Central video – the blond woman in the red outfit:
1:26 “Women are very inappropriate with their dress, WHAT do you expect to happen!? […] I’m a woman, I know my boundaries, I know what I’m supposed to do, I’m a Christian […], you cain’t take sides, you DO NOT take sides”
Are you Kavanaugh or Ford?
“I am Kavanaugh”

Tom Nichols, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College and often mentioned at this site, recounts in this Atlantic article why he is leaving the Republican Party. He has now left the Republican Party and declared himself an Independent. The Collins speech is what broke him. He states:

“She helped me finally to accept what I had been denying. Her speech on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh convinced me that the Republican Party now exists for one reason, and one reason only: for the exercise of raw political power, and not even for ends I would otherwise applaud or even support.”

He has no love for the Democrats and still considers himself a conservative. But, he says this about Republicans:

“The Republicans, however, have now eclipsed the Democrats as a threat to the rule of law and to the constitutional norms of American society. They have become all about winning.”

He goes on:

“Politics is about the exercise of power. But the new Trumpist GOP is not exercising power in the pursuit of anything resembling principle, and certainly not for conservative or Republican principles.”

Finally:

“But whatever my concerns about liberals, the true authoritarian muscle is now being flexed by the GOP, in a kind of buzzy, steroidal McCarthyism that lacks even anti-communism as a central organizing principle. The Republican Party, which controls all three branches of government and yet is addicted to whining about its own victimhood, is now the party of situational ethics and moral relativism in the name of winning at all costs.”

Tom Nichols is the kind of conservative who would have had a home in the Republican Party of 50 years ago when the concepts of compromise and “reaching across the aisle” were not anathema. He is now in the wilderness. Although I surely disagree with him on many issues, I respect his principles. He recognizes that whining about victimhood is not the sole domain of the regressive left. This article is well worth reading in full.

He sounds like an interesting person, marked by the now remarkable ability to see ones’ cohorts with objectivity. So I wonder what he sees wrong with the democrats/liberals. I should read the article, given time.

Interesting article. I believe this fellow is very conflicted and still seems to have attachment to the party he now wants to leave. I would ask, is he finally leaving out of pure embarrassment or does he actually have other reasons. He says the idea of becoming a democrat is out of the question so he will sit on the fence and take shots at both sides now. I can never understand folks such as this – it’s like they know just enough to be confused.

Says he is still a conservative, likes big defense (military) and small government otherwise. That is about as pure republican as you can get. Like most people who don’t have a clue what government actually does for people and also have no idea how big and over-sized they want their military.

Slight misprint, Warby’s world water speed record was 317.6mph. Still fast enough!

The challenge with any boat at that speed is aerodynamic – that if it gets the slightest bit of ‘air’ it’s going to fly, with deadly consequences. Very similar to the challenges faced by land speed record cars – they have a slightly firmer surface, and one guaranteed to be flatter, but the potential for lift is much greater due to the higher speed.

Apparently Warby built the boat in his backyard. One can only conclude that he was not only skilled but fantastically lucky with the aerodynamics.

Mark, same here. Regarding why, I’m not sure emotions can be analytically hacked, as I suspect they may be as hard wired as basic instincts. Technically, however, I think the soaring string music has a lot to do with it.

Her daddy is the L.A. property developer Mohamed Hadid whose wealth is in the low nine $ digits. She was brought up on a ranch with a string of horses at her beck & call ~ she was destined for a career as an Olympic equestrian. To hear such a refined creature speak the word “dope” [awesome] with a straight face & with a languid, crystal clear pronunciation is worthy of some reaction – I expect I’d laugh loud & walk away from her reverse snobbery – perhaps she ‘talks down’ to infuriate the dad.

I think that Hili is in exceptionally fine form today. Have you thought of compiling “The Sayings of Chaircat Hili” or “Tractatus Cattus Philosophicus”? (though that’s surely not the correct grammatical Latin form of “cat”).